The Calcutta Parsee Amateur Dramatic Club (CPADC) "restored the tradition of performing for the Gujarati speaking community” in their city on December 14, 2019, noted actor and Club member Yezdi Karai. The 112-year-old Club has been recognized in the Limca Book of Records for producing plays year after year each Shahenshahi Navroz. Between 1915 and 2012, CPADC staged the same play for sister communities a few days after the first performance. "We had a seven-year hiatus between 2012 till 2019 when we did not perform a second show.”
(Above) cast of Sasu Sexy Jamai Esky staged at Calcutta;
(inset) Tushar Mehta: reviving a lapsed tradition for Gujarati speaking sister communities
The 97-year tradition that had "fallen off” was revived with the performance of Sasu Sexy Jamai Esky (Mother-in-law sexy, son-in-law fashionable) (see "Calcutta arts,” Events and Personalities, Parsiana, September 7-21, 2019) that was first staged on August 17 this year. "An audience of almost 400 gathered at the Gyan Manch Auditorium in Calcutta and among them was a fair sprinkling of members of the Bohra community and a few Parsis who had missed the Navroz performance,” noted Karai, who also acted in the play. No lines were adapted for this largely non-Parsi audience, he averred.
The venue was sponsored by the Creative Group (CG) while CPADC put up the stage sets, lighting and props. CG "is a 1,000-member group that has Gujarati and Bohra communities coming together for skits, plays and musical performances,” stated Karai. Their president Tushar Mehta "has a long association with the Parsis of Calcutta,” he observed. CG secretary Narendra Kapadia "marveled at the ability of a community of 400 to keep a 112-year tradition.” The Gujarati-speaking community of 25,000 were finding it difficult to put together a group on stage, even though they do have some excellent stage performers, directors and crew, Kapadia told the audience.
"Traditions, when they lapse, are seldom restored easily. We owe this staging to CPADC veteran member (and trustee of the community’s apex body, Calcutta Zoroastrian Community’s Religious and Charity Fund) Bahadur Postwalla,” acknowledged Karai. Postwalla "pushed us to commit, set up the contacts and helped us navigate the relationship… You won’t find him in our cast and crew picture. Yet he is the moving spirit in a tradition now reclaimed with a resolve it shall not lapse,” stated Karai.
CG has already booked Gyan Manch auditorium on August 30, 2020 for CPADC’s performance of their 2020 play. "We couldn’t have asked for better appreciation of our performance than an audience wishing to return,” Karai signed off.